NW Kid Chaser

“Less stuff, more life!” is a mantra my husband and I have recently acquired. To that purpose, we gave our boys a summer road trip to Yellowstone National Park this past Christmas. The boys unwrapped a variety of boxes (inside of more boxes) to get to this certificate:

Seven months later, we packed the car to the brim and headed out across Oregon and Idaho to reach the world’s first national park. My sons describe the trip as fun, long, hot, exciting, funny, cool, and all around awesome. This will be just one of many posts that tell of our adventures....

The saying goes that “getting there is half the fun.” So, we decided to take advantage of our route to Yellowstone through Idaho and visit some historic Oregon Trail sites. My boys love to play the Oregon Trail computer game and have read many books, so our stops were geared to pull all that background knowledge together in one real-life package.

This gem is tucked off the highway and gives travelers a chance to view the beautiful back roads of Idaho. I had heard that you could sled down the sand, but sadly that turned out not to be true (at least not on sheets of cardboard). A good break from

sitting-in-the-car, my boys ran up and down the dunes; rolling down through the soft sand. Be sure to bring extra clothes and a towel to clean up after the fun (a water spigot to rinse legs and feet is available in the park’s camping area). I would also recommend visiting only in the early morning or evening. The sun heats up sand and can burn little feat mid-day.

Located on the Snake River at Glenns Ferry, Three Island Crossing offers great picnic spots, camping sites, and the (free admission) Oregon Trail History and Education Center. Just off Interstate 84 this park makes a great lunch stop for travelers (just as it was a key stop for pioneers along the Oregon trail).

Then:Thousand Springs State Park at Hagerman, IDYou can see Malad Gorge from your car as you fly by on Highway 84, but taking Exit 147 for the five minute drive to its edge is completely worth the effort. My oldest sonwas a bit nervous

about walking on the foot bridge over the gorge (with its 250 foot drop), but he braved the 20 steps to see the face-in-the-rocks over the Devil’s Washbowl.

On the opposite side of the highway, at this same spot, is the Kelton Trail. This area is no longer maintained by the Parks Department, but we couldn’t pass the opportunity to see wagon ruts still visible from the great migration west. Follow the first road (on the left) just north of Interstate 84 until you spy the skeleton of the once-upon-a-time parking lot marker (on your right side). The washed-out gravel driveway leads to the small parking lot (slowly losing its battle with sagebrush). If you park there, you’ll see a white marker less than six feet away. It marks the wagon ruts (that are also struggling to hold their own with nature).

Of course, my family didn’t see the marker at first and so hiked in every direction for twenty minutes. My boys were not eager participants in this adventure after we found a length of skin recently shed by a rattlesnake. This was the perfect

conversation starter about how the trip to Oregon must have been for children their own age in the mid 1800s. We decided as a family that we just might have decided to stay on the East Coast.

Last stop: Twin Falls, ID

We entered Twin Falls on Highway 93 in an effort to visit Shoshone Falls. The falls (nicknamed ‘The Niagara of the West’) were a grand sight, but it was the Perrine Bridge on this same route that really caught our attention. Less Oregon Trail; More modern sport: This stop was unexpectedly interesting.

Pull in to the Visitor’s Center on the northwest edge of the Perrine Bridge and you’ll most likely find BASE jumpers preparing their parachutes for their next jump. Yep, you read

that right: JUMP! Every day folks throw themselves from this bridge and somersault, tumble, fall, and eventually float to a soft landing almost 500 feet below. At first, I hid my eyes. Then, I peeked through my fingers. My sons ooh and ahhed. My husband thought it looked like fun! (Ek!) It was the talk of the minivan for miles and miles down the road.